Did you know that every Kenyan is entitled to vote in the Jubilee Primaries and not just party members? Did you see the party register open for corrections, which should be open in the two weeks before the exercise? The Jubilee Party Nomination Rules, which we finally received yesterday, contain major surprises for all those who observed the primaries in the last eight days. We have uploaded the rules to RoGGKenya for all media to look at. The rules are also of interest to all aspirants who want to challenge their defeat.
Eligibility to vote
According to the rules, who was eligible to vote?
In Section 15 to 17, the rules state that there should a be a Party Voters Register – which is not called a membership register! According to 17.2, every adult Kenyan whose name is not registered with another party may register as a voter upon application. Registration should be continuous (17.1) but it closes at a designated time before the parties submit their membership lists to the IEBC. The register should comprise of a poll register for each polling station plus registers for every ward, constituency, and county (Sec. 15 of the Rules).
Moreover, the party was to open its register of voters for a period of 14 days after its closure. The opening should allow for confirmation and rectification (17.4 of the Rules). The register should be kept in the party’s headquarters and at every constituency.
What was declared instead?
Shortly before the primaries, according to media reports, Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju remained unclear which “party list” Jubilee was using. In addition, he declared that the IEBC list of registered voters would be used to confirm which polling stations the people named on the party list would be entitled to use.
And what has happened?
Almost none of the rules seems to have been implemented. If they had been, it would have been totally unnecessary to use the IEBC registered voters list because Sec. 15 of the Jubilee Rules had already provided for a polling station register. And the candidates or their agents would have been able to check the list.
Instead, an ominous “poll book” was delivered to the polling stations (see photo). Even presiding officers and clerks, as well as administrative personnel at a sample poll station in Nakuru West and at Jubilee headquarters in Nakuru County, were not able to say who was or was not named in this “poll book”. There are good reasons to believe that the “poll book” was an intersection of the party membership register and the IEBC voters register of 2013 (!) which contained only names that were to be found in both registers. This would constitute a gross discrimination of youth below 22 years (who had not been able to register in 2013) as well as all others who had registered as voters only after the 2013 elections.
Other Surprises / Rules not followed
We cannot name them all, but:
All election materials shall reach the polling centers 12 hours before the nomination process “unless unable for reasons beyond their control”, as rule 25.1 (a) (ii.) states. This did not happen, as we know by now – and this was for reasons within the party’s control.
According to 25.1 (g) (VIII.), there has to be serialized booklets with the ballots. It is unclear whether the party was able to provide these booklets in a properly serialized way in the few days between the first – failed – primaries date on April 21 and their repeat.
Appeals Rights
Every candidate has the right to appeal against the results within 72 hours after their announcement (33). The rules seem to be contradictory as to if the National Appeals Tribunal’s decision shall be final (Rule 39) or it shall just constitute a recommendation to the National Elections Board (Rule 37.5.).
Download and read yourself: The “Jubilee Party Nomination Rules, 2016”
Note: We have also analyzed the ODM nomination rules in an earlier article. Other parties rules are only now being made accessible by the IEBC on its website (direct link, external). These rules had to be submitted to the IEBC by March 2, as stated on an IEBC press release.
